


Don't Leave Me Hanging

by Zenith931



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 04:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13333875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenith931/pseuds/Zenith931
Summary: Two Inquisitors go on adventures.  Written from the perspective of one of them.





	Don't Leave Me Hanging

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PoboboProbably](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoboboProbably/gifts).



Cullen had her pressed against the wall in his office, one of his hands buried in her hair. They were kissing ferociously, with little regard for time. His body pressed against hers and she purred, moving her kisses down his neck.

He let her travel downward until he carefully cleared his throat, “I have to get a report out before the last courier leaves.”

Aren paused and looked at him with a scowl. “You’re just telling me this now?” 

He had a small, knowing grin on his face, like she often wore. “Shouldn’t you be leaving soon, anyway?”

In a small period of befuddlement at having the tables turned on her, she was left speechless. “Did you just *tease* me with all of this?” She rested her hands against his chest. 

Cullen smiled wider, “It’s not as fun being on the receiving end, is it?” Aren made a disgusted noise that Cassandra would be envious of and pushed him away. The commander laughed a bit, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” He called out, somewhat tauntingly as Aren stalked out the door.

She whirled back and cast a narrowed eye at him, “You’re in trouble when I get back.”

“I look forward to it!” Came the reply.

She shook her head as she departed, a wide grin growing upon her face. She broke out into a run and headed down to the stables. Lera would likely be annoyed at her partner’s tardiness, but at least Aren had planned and had her pack and other gear ready. The stable hands promised to load her horse before their departure, so there shouldn’t be any delays.

She arrived in time to see Lera looking slightly cross atop her horse, waiting. Lera took one look at Aren’s disheveled hair and rolled her eyes. “Do you two do anything else?”

Aren mounted her horse, which was already prepped and loaded by the stable hands and began riding out of the gate, Lera followed and then alongside. Aren ran her hand a few times through her hair to straighten it. “We do many other things.” She replied a little indignantly.

“Besides fucking like rabbits?” Lera shot back.

“Don’t be jealous.” Aren smiled sweetly. “He’s been teaching me a lot of close range fighting with daggers.”

“Right. I’ve seen your sparring matches before you resume your ‘usual activities.’” Lera rolled her eyes, punctuating the last two words with in-air quotation marks from her hands.

“I’ve still been learning a lot.” Aren replied. Lera didn’t even take the easy smart reply and let a disgusted snort speak for her. Aren laughed in response and shifted the subject. “We’ve also been playing these word puzzles from Orlais. He’s been trying to increase my patience with chess, too.”

“That word puzzle that all the nobles are playing?” Aren’s sister questioned.

“Yes. It’s a sort of crossword puzzle, but the letters must be arranged just so to form another word. Like a crossword puzzle and anagram cross.” 

“Huh.” Was Lera’s only reply.

They rode in silence for a while. They were both headed to a small outpost in the foothills of the Frostbacks. The Inquisition soldiers had been stationed there for a while without issue, but lately had had some odd reports of bandits or barbarians terrorizing the supply lines. It was infrequent enough to not warrant a full military squad. Aren and Lera wanted a bit of a trip for a few days, so it was enough for them to investigate. Besides, the foothills there had some spectacular cliffs for climbing.

After a few hours, Aren ventured to break the silence. “So what’s got you in a mood?”

Lera snapped back, “Nothing.”

“Bullshit.” Aren tossed back. With a snort, Lera narrowed her eyes and didn’t reply. “You’re still upset about that one Venatori, aren’t you?”

As if the floodgates opened, Lera sat up and immediately started yelling, “He died before we could do anything to him! Who gave him permission to have a stroke or whatever other bullshit term the healers said it was. It was so frustrating! Died in the cell!”

“Think of all the information he could have had…” Aren drew out thoughtfully.

Lera kept on ranting her frustrations about the inconsiderate Venatori. After a few minutes she seemed to settle down. She grabbed her wine skin from her horse and took a few long drinks. 

“We still have another day’s ride. I’m not sharing mine, either. So slow down.”

“You think this is the only one I packed?” Lera replied to the warning.

“Good thinking.” Aren replied. After a while, she glanced over at her sister, “Feeling better?”

“We may need to stop in a village for more wine. But, yes.”

“You know it won’t be as good as the stuff Dorian keeps importing…”

“At this point, I don’t care.”

 

They had arrived at their destination, a day or two of rest at the camp had been enjoyable in that the troops seemed to be in decent spirits despite the bandits, and were overjoyed to have such distinguished guests. The accommodations were admirable given such short notice. Lera and Aren had even given the troops there a few lessons on archery, receiving great praise. 

Now, they were a short ride away from the outpost at a cliffside. The day was quiet, cool, and the surrounding forest pressed close against the foothills of the Frostbacks, as if the forest was loathe to forfeit any additional ground to the treacherous mountains. The forest made the area even quieter, but also somewhat private. The two had a short clearing between the cliff face and the forest edge in which they had set up their mounts and gear.   
The cliff above them was one of the larger in the set that the two had planned to climb and was one of the last remaining unconquered as well. The earlier ascents had been scaled yesterday in quick succession by the pair. This one was a flat face with only sporadic openings or outcroppings for holds. Lera had already scaled to the top, blind, and without a line. She had set a hook into the rock for Aren’s attempt and was now below belaying for the other Trevelyan. Aren was having a difficult time, as she had taken a different line from Lera and had gotten herself into part of the cliff where scree covered any possible holds she could find. She resorted to testing her holds before trusting them, but it had still been difficult as her holds failed with the underlying gravel. As a result, Aren had been relying on Lera’s line a lot more than she would have liked.

Lera was doing her best from below to look ahead for her sister, but it was proving difficult as Aren was so far off course from the line Lera had taken, and it was hard to judge with the scree in that area. 

“Four feet above at two-o’clock looks clear!” Lera shouted up.

Aren didn’t respond. She was too high up to really hear, the forest muted much of their talk, and the sounds of intermittent rockfall blocked everything else out. Additionally, Aren was too busy testing, retesting and looking for options that she simply wasn’t listening to Lera’s shouted suggestions. 

Lera shouted again from below and Aren waved her off distractedly. She had found a decent outcropping for her feet that she could partially rest her tired arms. Aren was busy looking up for her route and possible holds that she wasn’t listening to Lera’s advice or much of anything else. She didn’t pay attention to Lera’s repeated shouts, and also didn’t notice when the comfortingly constant tug of the belay line had gone slack.

After testing her hand holds for a few moments, Aren made a quick grab for an outcropping, missed and slid down past the sanctuary she had previously had for her feet, sliding down the cliff with the scree that was unsettled at the movement.

Aren cried out for Lera’s intervention, but found none. The belay line had gone slack and flowed freely upwards as Aren tumbled down. With a quick grab, she cling to the belay line itself to at least halt her fall. She hung like that, from the single hook high above her on the rope. Below her, all of their stuff was still there, but Lera was gone. Her weapons also were. Narrowing her eyes, Aren set upon the first task of her predicament and locating her missing sister: getting down off the cliff face. Using her feet, she slowly lowered herself down with the rope, going hand over hand to move further down the rope and thus to the ground. The task took quite a long while with the height she had gotten up to on the cliff. She kept her ears open for sounds from below and cast her sight around from her vantage point, but saw nothing due to the forest canopy. 

Landing on the ground for the first time in a long while, she took a moment to gather herself and lower her heart rate from the ordeal of trying not to fall to her death. She caught the fragment of a noise and she perked up, grabbed her own weapons and sprinted off towards it.

She didn’t have to go far. The forest was thick and muted a lot of the noise, even though it wasn’t very far away. Struggling through it, Aren came upon a section of trees which were clear of the underbrush and saw Lera fighting with a small group of men which looked like bandits. A few of them were already strewn around her on the ground with arrows sprouting from them. But her bow lay splintered a few feet away and the string broken. Lera was doing a fine job of holding the three men at bay on her own, but looked winded. 

Without a sound, or another thought Aren drew her bow and immediately fired off an arrow to one of the assailants. He fell with an arrow in his back, and another bandit realized the additional opponent which entered the fray. He moved to the lee side of Lera as she was busy beating the last bandit’s face. 

Aren growled in frustration and sprinted forward, drew a dagger, and circled around silently, plunging the blades into the man’s back. He pitched forward with a gurgling yell, Lera whipped around towards the sound after her own opponent’s bloodied face tilted backwards and his entire body followed it. Lera pivoted on her heel to strike at the next target, but found herself targetless, save for Aren who was removing her daggers from her victim and cleaning them off. Aren returned her daggers to their hiding place and gave Lera a disappointed look.

Aren was interrupted by her sister, “It’s about time you showed up.”

“Well, after you leave me dangling on a cliff, it’s going to take some time…”

“I yelled at you where I was going!”

“And you didn’t think by the lack of response that I maybe didn’t hear you?”

“I’m not going to have a discussion with you when an arrow had already whizzed by my head.”

Aren frowned. “Ambush?”

Lera smiled grimly. “They tried.”

“And you broke your bow.” Aren pointed out.

A frown was Lera’s response, “I used it to beat one’s face in.”

“Rest in peace… es.” Aren’s somber expression cracked to a grin then immediately grew serious as the forest exploded into noise.

The bandits had reinforcements. The rest of the group had located their men and were closing in on the two sisters. Lera turned to Aren and motioned to her bow. Aren scowled and handed it to Lera, “This is how you know I love you.”

Lera responded by notching an arrow and immediately drawing, pointing at Aren, and loosing the arrow. Aren immediately ducked in time to see the arrow impale itself in the eye socket of a bandit. She drew her blades and darted away, vanishing from sight. In wordless coordination, Lera picked off the opponents far off, through the trees, standing her ground and taking shots that would seem impossible. None of the bandits made it close enough to threaten her as Aren had a veritable perimeter established; any opponent too close was greeted with flashing daggers and a first-hand view of his own blood. 

With a careful sidestep, Lera avoided a careening bandit as it crashed into the ground behind her, a knife was already buried in his head with a well-placed throw from Aren. The forest seemed to slowly dim in noise as each opponent fell until it dropped to a constant level from a pair of heavily armored men that had survived due to struggling through the trees. Obviously, large shields and metal helmets did little to the bandits’ maneuverability or sight in the close quarters. 

Lera looked at the two men struggling through the trees and immediately grinned. She caught Aren’s eye with a nod before she drew an arrow and started pacing backwards, kiting the men through the trees. The men were armored enough to be able to shrug off the arrows, but they couldn’t navigate the close confines of the trees and were easily led away as Aren stalked behind. 

They played a dance where the two men stumbled after Lera, shaking off arrows with their armor, their shields sprouting hits like porcupines. Aren harried them from behind, sneaking in a few glancing blows in their joints. They would yell and spin to catch her, only to find nothing there and another arrow hitting them in the side. This game lasted for a while, the two women tiring their prey, leading them in circles around the forest floor, the two bandits growing increasingly fatigued. 

A well-planted arrow found a weak spot in one man’s armor and with a gasping, hoarse cry, he slowly toppled over. The other stumbled over his partner’s corpse and Aren drew a dagger across his throat as a result.

Aren and Lera reunited back at the foot of the cliff they had been climbing. 

Lera had already slung her borrowed bow across her back. “This is mine now.” She said, referring to the weapon.

“Dagna will be busy,” Aren stated with a scowl, not very happy at having her own weapon commandeered. “I’m going back up,” She said, motioning towards the cliff. “Will you try not to abandon me this time?”

“No promises.” Lera grinned.


End file.
